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The Sweetest Hallelujah

In 1950’s Mississippi a dying black woman places an advert in the local paper, trying to find someone to take care of her ten year old daughter, not realising the life-changing chain of events she has just put in motion for a wealthy white woman from the other side of the tracks.

I requested this book from NetGalley a while ago, as I feel very drawn to anything set in the deep south, particularly if set in a politically tumultuous time. So I’d definitely like to say a big thank you to Harlequin for allowing me to indulge myself!

Absolutely everything.

The narrative tone was so magnetic that I could barely put it down. In fact, I walked home while reading. In the rain. The plot was profound and surprising and satisfying and heartbreaking all at once. It dealt with timeless issues that affect the human condition, no matter the day and age, and showcased grief from so many angles in a way that was just so raw and true. I was really impressed.

The characters were quirky, and vivid and surely couldn’t have been purely figments of Elaine Hussey’s imagination! She managed to write very convincingly from a variety of perspectives, which I know from experience is no easy task. I believed that she was a ten year old girl, and a cancer stricken jazz singer. I believed she was a grieving father and a god-fearing grandmother. I sincerely cannot remember the last time I empathized with a bunch of characters to this extent…

NOTHING!

You enjoyed The Help or, like me, just have a morbid fascination with the racial interaction of the 1950’s and 1960’s.

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If you'd like to ask me any questions, collaborate on something arty / bloggy / literary, or even just make friends, I'd love to hear from you! Drop me an email on Daire.openway@yahoo.co.uk and I'll get back to you as soon as I can!

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Doing it the Open Way is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.co.uk. This means that if you purchase something from Amazon after clicking on a link from this blog I receive a small percentage of the fee. I also occasionally receive advance review copies of books free of charge, in exchange for a review on Doing it the Open Way.
Neither of these impact my content in any way whatsoever. Honesty and integrity are very important to me, and as such my words are entirely my own. I will never promote products that I do not believe in.